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Archive for the ‘Open Standards’ Category

There’s been a lot of hype and discussion about certain popular applications coming over to the iPhone platform, and Pocket Informant is no exception. The popular Windows Mobile Personal Information Manager is due out on the iPhone sometime in the future, but it’s most important feature is the one receiving the least amount of attention. It’s Sync engine is based on SyncML, specifically the open-source Funambol sync engine. It has it’s own Funambol client syncing to it’s own Calendar and task databases, since the iPhone doesn’t presently have a tasks database, nor does it expose the built-in Calendar to 3rd party applications.

So, essentially it works like Chapura’s Keysuite on the Palm; work around limitations of the platform’s databases by simply replacing them. It’s the Sync Engine though that really shows that the WebIS people are serious about making PI a heavyweight on the iPhone. Funambol allows for syncing many different types of devices and services, and allows for the “pushing” of information out to mobile devices. This could really make the iPhone really useful as a productivity device, by syncing Customer relationship managment (CRM) or sales force automation (SFA) data to the iPhone.

It’s been entertaining watching the App store releases; mostly eye-candy and fluff, but the next few months should be really entertaining as the heavyweights start entering the ring.

The Palm OS platform has long been about the freedom of choice. If you don’t like the built-in applications, you can either replace them totally, or you can use another application that works with the existing databases. If you don’t want to use Palm Desktop, you can use Outlook, or Lotus Notes, or Act, or any of dozens of other Personal Information Management applications. If you don’t like the Palm conduits, you can use PocketMirror or Intellisync or any one of several other sync conduits.

Don’t use Windows as your desktop OS? No problem! You can Sync to Macs, Linux PC’s, Solaris, and even the Amiga! Your data is available to you on the desktop platform of your choice, using the conduits of your choice, in the applications you want to use. And it’s like that with the majority of applications on the Palm OS, with one notable exception. Most of the major “mobile office” suites insist on using Microsoft Office formats as their data format. So, that makes it more difficult for people using platforms other than Windows, or those who can’t afford MS Office, to access mobile documents.

If your data is important to you, and you want the freedom of choice to use other formats like the OpenDocument format, then it’s time to remind the manufacturers of those office suites that choice is the cornerstone of the Palm Platform. If they don’t choose to support Open standards, or at least support software like OpenOffice writing to MS formats, then we as users may choose to take our business to those who will support our choices.

Now, if you want to be able to work with Open and inter-operable document formats on you Palm or Treo, you need to let the manufacturers know. Write them an e-mail, or use the forms I’ve linked to below to tell them you’d like support for the OpenDocument format (ODF) built into their product. DataViz, the makers of the Documents to Go suite bundled with many Palm and Treo devices, are building in support for Microsoft Office 2007 formats, known as OO-XML. Since it has some of the same technologies (XML) that are used in ODF, it should be straight forward to add support for ODF into the Docs to Go suite. Feel free to tell them you’d like to see them do it!

The DataViz general feedback page can be found here. Let them know you want to see ODF support on mobile devices.